During the beginning of 1980, the U.S. economy peaked and a recession began. From January to July, the U.S. was in a recession but only remained this way for six months. In July, it turned again and an expansion began, lasting until July of 1981. For the entire year, the GDP was down by only .2 percent from 1979 but was on the rise immediately after by 2.4 percent in 1981. Broken down by quarters, GDP suffered for the first two quarters with a 2.1 percent drop and a mild .2 percent drop respectively. After the turn of the economy, a large presidential election took place where Republican Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter, perhaps due to the economic changes. Along with GDP on the fall, inflation rates were pushing 14 percent and unemployment was also on the rise, climbing 1.4 percent to 7.2 in 1980 compared to 5.8 in 1979. Despite some improvement in the economy, unemployment continued to rise until 1982. With unemployment rising, auto sales drastically fell for every month in 1980 compared to 1979, and then rose again in the early and middle months of 1981, but fell again in the latter months. National income levels were on the rise from all quarters in 1979, but fell slightly in the second quarter of 1980, but then continued to rise shortly after. This can most likely be explained by the contraction suffered in the early months of 1980. Paul Volker was appointed chairman of the Federal Reserve in 1979, by Jimmy Carter, and immediately began tightening monetary policy. This was being done due to the high inflation rates. Unemployment was a secondary factor in this era, and increased as a contractionary policy raised rates.